Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system user interface management, and more particularly, to an information handling system capacitive touch totem management.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems interact with end users through a variety of input and output devices. Typical input devices include keyboards, mice, touchpads, etc. that accept input actions and convert the input actions into signals interpreted by a processor. Typically output is presented at a display device, such as a flat panel LCD or OLED display panel. Flat panel displays provide high quality display resolution in a thin form factor. Some examples of flat panel displays include liquid crystal displays (LCD) that alter a presented back light to generate images, and organic light-emitting displays (OLED) that generate images with pixels that create desired light values. One advantage of flat panel displays is that portable information handling systems can integrate the displays into a portable housing while supporting a thin form factor and reduced power consumption. Another advantage is that flat panel displays readily adapt to include touchscreen inputs. End users often prefer to interact with user interfaces by performing touch inputs at a display touchscreen so that keyboard and mouse devices are not needed.
As touchscreen displays have improved and been adopted by end users in portable information handling systems, touch interfaces have become more common and intuitive. Further, touchscreen protective surfaces have become tougher and more resistant to breakage and scratching. As a result, desktop touchscreen displays that are horizontally disposed have become accepted as a flexible user interface. A horizontally-disposed touchscreen display rests on a desktop surface and presents user interfaces that end users touch to perform inputs. For example, a displayed keyboard allows an end user to make keyed inputs instead of relying on a fixed keyboard. With appropriately designed user interfaces, a horizontally-disposed touchscreen provides an interface that works more efficiently than mouse-based interfaces since an end user simply touches the input on the display resting on a desktop in front of the user.
One difficulty with the use of a horizontally-disposed display is that the touchscreen will often receive inadvertent touches that are not intended as inputs to the information handling system. For example, a palm or object resting on a touchscreen may be placed for user convenience or comfort rather than to generate an input by a touch. Typically touchscreen displays filter touches to identify finger touches as intended touches and to avoid inadvertent touches as inputs. In a desktop environment where a touchscreen display is horizontally-disposed, such filtering may consume processing resources so that latency is introduced between when an end user makes an intended touch and the intended touch is recorded on the display as an input. On the other hand, even where adequate processing resources are available to filter touch inputs in a timely manner, rapid processing of touches can result in presentation of inputs where no input was in fact intended. Although post-processing can remove such unintended presentations, even temporary presentation of incorrect data can lead to end user confusion and a poor user experience.
With horizontal disposition of touchscreen displays, totems have become an option to aid end user interactions with user interfaces. A totem is a device, often without any integrated intelligence, that interacts by touches to the display surface. For example, a mouse totem might move a cursor on a display based upon the position of the mouse totem on a horizontally disposed touchscreen display. Totem devices offer physical manipulation that translates into touch inputs to improve interface intuitiveness and usability. However, a totem tends to touch across a wider area than a finger touch, which tends to introduce difficulty for an operating system to recognize the totem versus inadvertent bulk touches, such as may be introduced by a palm. Further, as an end user manipulates a totem the totem bottom surface tends to lift from the touchscreen in an uneven manner that may lead to improper totem recognition and tracking. As totem contact regions lift off and re-contact a touchscreen display, irregular and unpredictable touch inputs increase demands on processing resources, often resulting in latency for totem input and incorrect tracking of the inputs at the touchscreen.
In some instances, totem devices include some level of intelligence that aids in the management of inputs. For example, a totem may include a Bluetooth transmitter, a microprocessor, an accelerometer and external lighting that aids end user interaction. One difficulty that arises with intelligent totems is tracking multiple totem devices so that a device associated with an intelligent input or interaction is at a location on the touchscreen display that is associated with the input. A registration process that associates a particular totem with a touch location introduces complexity that an end user must deal with as inputs are made, totems are added or removed and user interfaces change. In addition, registration of totems tends to increase latency and slow interactions by having wireless coordination completed before an end user can interact with a totem. Further, intelligent totems typically require some internal power source, such as a battery, so that keeping the battery charged or fresh presents the end user with an additional complexity that detracts from the simple nature of totems as “dumb” input devices.